521 Lybster to Latheron

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Thursday, 16th May, 2024]

I walk down to the harbour at Lybster. It is a pleasant stroll along a road, in watery sunshine.

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520b Whaligoe to Lybster

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Tuesday 14th May, 2024]

It is a beautiful place to have lunch. On flat rocks, with waterfalls cascading down the slope above, and a ruined building perched in the distance.

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520a Whaligoe to Lybster

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Tuesday, 14th May, 2024]

From the bus stop on the main road, I walk along the little lane that leads to the Whaligoe Steps. Past the row of little cottages, past a number of vehicles trying to get into the tiny car park (which is full), until I reach the end of the tarmac.

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519pm Wick to Whaligoe

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Monday, 13th May, 2024]

Leaving Sarclet Haven behind, I carry on along The John o’Groats Trail. I’m tired now – this walk seems longer than I anticipated – but I must be nearly there. Another geo to walk around, fringed with pink thrift flowers. Turrie Geo, I think

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519am Wick to Sarclet

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Ruth Livingstone

[This walk was completed on Monday, 13th May 2024]

I cycle the long, straight road into Wick, find the side road that leads past the Trinkie swimming pool, and reach the car park at the end of the lane. Then, I realise I forgot to bring my bicycle lock! (It’s been a year since I walked the coast, and I have forgotten my usual routine.) So, with some difficulty, I drag my Scooty bike down a grassy slope, and leave it hidden from the road, lying against some rocks.

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Rehabilitation: getting back to normality…

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

Rehabilitation after cancer treatment is: “a process of regaining and refreshing old skills, learning and refining new ones to enable you to live the sort of life you want,” according to Dr Harvey. I knew what life I wanted. I WANTED MY OLD LIFE BACK.

It was going to take time. One big milestone was tucking into toast and marmalade. I hadn’t been able to eat toast – or bread of any type – for many months. It tasted scrumptious!

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Recovery: onwards and upwards…

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

I was right about my radiotherapy “wound” taking 6 weeks to heal. In fact, my ability to eat had become dramatically better at around 5 weeks. And now my fitness began to improve too.

So, I began going for longer walks. First just round the block, then round two blocks, then down the road to the nearest park. What a delight to see the cheerful yellow of crocuses in the park. At one point, I thought I would never live to see the spring. Now, spring was springing.

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Recovery: the long road back…

Posted on September 16, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

One week into the New Year, and my family came to visit – all three daughters and all three grandchildren – for a belated Christmas / early birthday celebration. I was still feeling awful – and tried not to show it. But my birthday flowers cheered up the room.

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Treatment: the downhill slide…

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

The only nice thing about being a cancer patient is that you get lots of sympathy. Over the next few weeks, as my treatment progressed, both old and new friends came to visit, I was sent cards, and I received some lovely flowers.

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A Nasty Shock: and a diagnosis…

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Ruth Livingstone

After some months of increasing tiredness, loss of appetite, and difficulty eating, I finally saw a GP on the 25th July, 2023, and was referred for futher investigations at the hospital, under the two-week rule. (For those who don’t know, the two-week rule is the target set to for specialists to see patients with a strong possibility that they might have cancer.)

Even though the two-week rule applied to me, I was still pretty sure that my symptoms had a simple explanation: a combination of increasing age and possibly a hiatus hernia.

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